Cabernet Franc— 2012 VINTAGE —
Soil: Oak-leaf soil
Vine age: Seventeen years old. Planted in 1995.
Scion Clone: CF1
Rootstock: 101-14
Vine spacing: 2.7 X 1.2 metres
Trellising system: Vertical shoot positioning
Yields: 8 tons per hectare.
Irrigation: Drip
Picking date: 22nd March.
Flowering to harvest: 131 days - longer
flowering period. Average for Cabernet takes
110 from flowering to picking.
Aspect: Southwest facing/ coolest slope on the
farm. 11 Hours of sunlight.
BLEND COMPONENTS
QUICK FACTSRegion: Simonsberg - Stellenbosch / Alcohol: 14.37% / PH Balance: 3.5 / TA: 5.8 / RS: 1.9
100% CABERNET FRANC (best wine made in the cellar). SINGLE VINEYARD (known as the far side).
VITICULTURIST’S NOTES:VITICULTURIST: Ronald Spies
GROWING SEASON SUMMARY
— Fairly dry winter in Stellebosch
The 2012 season kicked off with sufficient cold, but a drier winter than
usual – in the coastal regions especially. Sufficient cold units had
accumulated by the end of June, and with August being warmer, bud
burst was a week early in some blocks.
Vineyards showed good growth in the ideal weather conditions at the
start of the new growing season. Abnormally cold and rainy
conditions during the second part of flowering resulted in uneven
flowering and berry set, with high disease pressure, which producers
managed to control satisfactorily. Weather conditions were back to
normal in December, and less wind than usual resulted in less damage
to grapevines than previous years.
January was exceptionally hot, with heatwaves resulting in sunburn
damage in some instances. This exacerbated pressure on dryland
vineyards, which already had little soil water resources at that stage.
WINEMAKER’S NOTES:WINEMAKER: Nic van Aarde
The single vineyard is hand picked in the early morning on
Warwick Estate. The bunches are destemmed and the individual
berries are sorted on a vibrating sorting table. From there the
berries are crushed open slightly and pumped into open top
fermenters. The mash is cold settled for 3-6 days and fermented
dry. Daily pump over's or rack and returns are done.
The wine is then transferred to 225L French oak barrels where
Malolactic fermentation takes place. After Malolactic the wine is
racked back to tank, sulphured and returned to barrel for ageing.
The wine spent 27 months in 225L French oak barrels. A rough
filtration was done just before bottling.
USE OF OAK
Twenty-seven months in 225L tight grain French oak barrels -
28% new.
TASTED JUNE 2014
COLOUR: Ruby red centre with a violet rim.
NOSE: Black Forest cake, cassis bark, green cardamom, tobacco
leaves, flowering thyme, leather, cocoa, lavender.
TASTE: Feminine, soft velvet tannin, freshness and a lingering
impression.
AGEING POTENTIAL: 8 – 15 years from harvest.